Farmer Market Minute: USDA Looking At How To Improve On-line Farmers Market Purchases

The USDA is wants to get your opinion when it comes to ways they can improve online purchasing at farmers markets for SNAP participants. 

"Right now SNAP participants if they want to purchase at farmers markets they can either order online but not actually pay for it online." Senior nutrition advisor, Kumar Chandran, said USDA is looking at ways to increase convenience for SNAP participants. "So what this would enable a SNAP participant to do is they would be able to at home go to the farmers market website or the direct marking farmers website and identify what they wanted to purchase, put it in a cart and then actually pay for it and they would go to the market and pick it up."

He added that the ability for SNAP participants to purchase online at all is a relatively new thing that accelerated under the pandemic. 

"[Currently] we're at 47 states and the District of Columbia participating online purchasing pilot."

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